YAPL is bad (was: Re: Backlog assistance?)

[Rick Moen]

begin Karsten M. Self quotation:

> As well it should be.  OSI blundered horribly with the APSL.  Current
> thinking is that certification, once granted, cannot be undone.

Why?  I doubt the licence gods will descend in wrath.

I think the Board should mull decertification, and privately suggest that
Apple Computer amend the licence to remove the objectionable publication 
clause, to avert that step.

But I am tired of this small crew of posters who incessantly whine about 
OSI failing its "job" of approving new licences, rapidly shifting the
basis of their appeal when challenged.  One such person recently
objected to my word "tactic" to describe this lobbying.  (Perhaps he
would prefer "ploy"?)

The characteristic alternation of arguments goes like this:

Poster:  Licences need to be approved more rapidly to introduce improvements!
Others:  What specific examples of improvements are you thinking of?
Poster:  Well, never mind that.  OSI _committed_ to approving licences.
Others:  Why are you in such a flippin' hurry to get lots more licences
         for their own sake?  Aren't you aware of the licence combinatorial 
         problem for derivative works?  Aren't you aware of the problem
         of corporations misreading the OSD as an invitations to write
         a new licence for no better reason than to have their own.
Poster:  Well, never mind that.  Licences need to be approved more 
         rapidly to introduce improvements!

One could write a quite simple, yet obnoxious, script to simulate this
behaviour.

> In recent cases presented to this list, there have been multiple
> proposals for licensing schemes which do not meet the OSI Open Source
> Definition or FSF Free Software definition.

Blatantly so -- and accompanied by protracted attempts to wear down the 
OSI with rhetoric, when that was failing.  The European lawyer
(representing some CD-ROM-oriented firm?) was particularly cheeky about
that, you may recall.

- 
Cheers,     "Learning Java has been a slow and tortuous process for me.  Every 
Rick Moen   few minutes, I start screaming 'No, you fools!" and have to go
rick at linuxmafia.com       read something from _Structure and Interpretation of
            Computer Programs' to de-stress."   -- The Cube, www.forum3000.org
--
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